The Poetical Works of John Dryden. with Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes, by ... George Gilfillan.

Publisher Marketing: Title: The poetical works of John Dryden. With life, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes, by ... George Gilfillan. Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging from Bardic poetry to Victorian verse. Containing many classic works from important dramatists and poets, this collection has something for every lover of the stage and verse. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Dryden, John; Gilfillan, George; 1855. 2 vol. 23 cm. 11603.f.9. Contributor Bio:  Dryden, John John Dryden (1631-1700) was an English poet, critic and dramatist, responsible for nearly 30 plays. He was noted both for his elegant comedies and his heroic verse dramas, which introduced the principles of French neoclassicism to England. Dryden turned to drama following the reopening of the theatres at the Restoration; his first attempt, the comedy "The Wild Gallant", was presented in 1663 at Drury Lane. The success of his heroic drama "The Indian Emperor" established him as a leading playwright. Following "Aureng-Zebe" (1675), perhaps his best heroic work, Dryden abandoned the use of rhyming couplets, producing the oft-revived blank-verse tragedy" All for Love" (a retelling of Shakespeare's" Antony and Cleopatra") in 1677. Dryden was the first to write drama criticism in an informal modern style and the first to attempt a history of English drama in his essay "Of Dramatick Poesie" (1668). He eventually tired of playwriting and his final plays, such as the tragicomedy" Love Triumphant "(1694), were written to relieve financial problems after his fortunes fell with the abdication of James II. Contributor Bio:  Gilfillan, George Edward Young (1681-1765) was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts. Young is said to have been a brilliant talker. Although Night Thoughts is long and disconnected, it abounds in brilliant isolated passages. Its success was enormous. It was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and Magyar. In France it became a classic of the romantic school. Questions as to the "sincerity" of the poet did arise in the 100 years after his death. The publication of fawning letters from Young seeking preferment led many readers to question the poet's sincerity. In a famous essay, Worldliness and Other-Worldliness, George Eliot discussed his "radical insincerity as a poetic artist." If Young did not invent "melancholy and moonlight" in literature, he did much to spread the fashionable taste for them. Madame Klopstock thought the king ought to make him Archbishop of Canterbury, and some German critics preferred him to John Milton. Young's essay, Conjectures on Original Composition, was popular and influential on the continent, especially among Germans, as a testament advocating originality over neoclassical imitation. Young wrote good blank verse, and Samuel Johnson pronounced Night Thoughts to be one of "the few poems" in which blank verse could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage. The poem was a poetic treatment of sublimity and had a profound influence on the young Edmund Burke, whose philosophic investigations and writings on the Sublime and the Beautiful were a pivotal turn in 18th-century aesthetic theory.